Sarasota’s Best Italian Bakery

Happy Wednesday! This week is off to a crazy start. After flying back to school early yesterday morning for a long day of classes and a midterm, my stress levels are officially off the charts. This has me thinking of two things: warmer weather, and dessert. Flashback to Spring break. Mom and I, two infamous dessert addicts, were craving chocolate and searching high and low for high quality dessert in Sarasota. On a recommendation, we took a drive to Paisano’s Italian Bakery, owned by a family who are also from Rhode Island. You know a dessert place is good when it has two cases filled with various desserts as they have to sell out regularly.

Initially, Mom and I were drawn to the biscotti which were amazing. We tried the chocolate walnut, which was mediocre at best, the cranberry pistachio, and finally, the chocolate chip and the amaretto white chocolate, both of which came straight from biscotti heaven. They were crunchy, a good size and flavorful. This bakery clearly knows what it’s doing! We also tried the walnut cookies, which were also amazing, with a perfect buttery taste. We ended up consuming about 2 lbs of cookies each over our time in Sarasota and have zero regrets!

Next, we were drawn to the death by chocolate cake. I was a bit skeptical about how good the cake itself could be as it was coated in frosting, topped with hardened ganache and dipped in chocolate chips, but it did not disappoint. The cake begins with a dark chocolate layer of cake at the bottom, followed by a milk chocolate layer, before being topped with another dark chocolate layer of cake. Next, the cake is frosted with smooth and rich chocolate frosting which is covered in chocolate chips. On top, is rich dark chocolate ganache which ties the entire cake together. We had it every day of our trip; it was that good. One night, we split a piece of chocolate mousse cake which features chocolate mousse centered between two dark chocolate layers of cake and covered in chocolate, but it just didn’t compare. There’s no beating death by chocolate.